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The Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey is one of the main mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the PRSP and MDGs indicators. It provides a set of representative, population-based estimates of social indicators and their progress under the PRSP. For Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UN has set 18 targets for 48 indicators for its member countries to achieve by 2015. Pakistan has committed to implement 16 targets, 37 indicators out of which 15 indicators are to be monitored through PSLM Surveys. These include intermediate as well as ‘output’ measures, which assess what is being provided by the social sectors – enrolment rates in education, for example. They include a range of ‘outcome’ measures, which assess the welfare of the population – Immunisation Rate, for example.

An important objective of the PSLM Survey is to try to establish what the distributional impact of PRSP has been. Policymakers need to know, for example, whether the poor have benefited from the programme or whether increased government expenditure on the social sectors has been captured by the better off.

In the remainder of this introduction, a description of the 2005-06 PSLM Survey is provided. In the following chapters, data relating education, health, immunisation, pre and postnatal care and Population welfare is given.

Objectives and scope of analysis

This is the second report of the PSLM series of surveys to be conducted between 2004-2009. The PSLM is a large, complex household survey that collects information on a number of different sections, the tabulations presented here comprise the tables at National/ Provincial level and detailed analytical comparison has been carried with previous rounds of PSLM and PIHS. Some of the tables have been presented based on consumption quintiles. The methodology of consumption quintiles is explained in Appendix-B.

Sample Design

Universe: The universe of this survey consists of all urban and rural areas of the four provinces and Islamabad excluding military restricted areas.Sampling Frame: FBS has developed its own urban area frame, which was up-dated in 2003.Each city/town has been divided into enumeration blocks consisting of 200-250 households identifiable through sketch map. Each enumeration block has been classified into three categories of income groups i.e. low, middle and high keeping in view the living standard of the majority of the people. List of villages published by Population Census Organization obtained as a consequence of Population Census 1998 has been taken as rural frame.Stratification Plan:A. Urban Domain: Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Sialkot, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar and Quetta, have been considered as large sized cities. Each of these cities constitute a separate stratum and has further been sub-stratified according to low, middle and high-income groups. After excluding population of large sized city (s), the remaining urban population in each defunct Division in all the provinces has been grouped together to form a stratum.B. Rural Domain: Each district in the Punjab, Sindh and NWFP provinces has been grouped together to constitute a stratum. Whereas defunct administrative Division has been treated as stratum in Balochistan province.
Sample Size and Its Allocation: Keeping in view the objectives of the survey the sample size for the four provinces has been fixed at 15453 households comprising 1109 sample village/ enumeration blocks, which is expected to produce reliable results.Sample Design: A two-stage stratified sample design has been adopted in this survey.
Selection of Primary Sampling Units (PSUs): Villages and enumeration blocks in urban and rural areas respectively have been taken as Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Sample PSUs have been selected from strata/sub-strata with PPS method of sampling technique.
Selection of Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs): Households within sample PSUs have been taken as Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs). A specified number of households i.e. 16 and 12 from each sample PSU of rural & urban area have been selected respectively using systematic sampling technique with a random start. Detail sampling plan is given at Appendix-A.